Production: Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) / Hessian Broadcasting Corporation (HR), Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRF)
Authors: Monika Helfer, Elisabeth Weilenmann
Producers: Cordula Huth, Kurt Reissnegger, Wolfram Höll
Directors: Elisabeth Weilenmann
Sound engineers: Martin Leitner, Jakob Kainz, Melanie Inden und Thomas Rombach
Composer: Fatima Dunn
Synopsis:
Monika Helfer’s autobiographical radio play “The pack” tells the story of her outsider family in a small village in Vorarlberg during the first half of the 20th century. “The pack” is the scornful name given to her poor family by the villagers. They live on the margins of the community, at the very edge of the village, disadvantaged both materially and socially, without any respect or standing.
At the center of the narrative are Maria and Josef, the author’s great-grandparents. Josef is drafted into military service during the First World War and must leave home. Maria, a beautiful and proud woman, remains behind, viewed with suspicion by the villagers. During Josef’s absence she gives birth to a child whose father is uncertain (Maria had also met and fallen in love with a young man from Germany). This child later becomes the mother of the narrator. Thus, the family’s history is suspended between rumor and truth, between inherited stories and historical reality.
In clear and economical prose, Monika Helfer describes how the village talks about “the pack,” how social origin and poverty shape a life, and how hearsay turns into family history. She interweaves her own childhood memories, handed-down anecdotes, and fictional imagination. “The pack” is therefore both an autobiographically inspired novel and a literary work of remembrance.
The radio play explores themes of exclusion, poverty, class, the power of storytelling and the role of women through generations. Their role was to resist isolation and patriarchal control through collective endurance. Helfer paints a vivid portrait of a family at the edge of society—and at the same time reflects on origin and identity.
